The 24-trade table
The table records the billing shape and the context field each template is designed to make explicit. `Yes` in the third column counts 11 rows below; `Sometimes` is intentionally not included in that count.
| Trade | Billing basis | Money up front? | The field disputes hinge on |
|---|---|---|---|
| General contractor | Labor + materials split | Yes — deposit | Deposit applied / balance remaining |
| Construction (GC, staged) | Stage payments against schedule | Yes — deposit + draws | Stage/milestone reference line |
| Independent contractor | Hourly, fixed-fee or retainer | Sometimes — retainer | Description of work per line |
| Roofing | Estimate → invoice, materials-heavy | Yes — deposit | Reference to the accepted estimate |
| Plumbing | Service call + parts & labor | No | Service-call line vs. repair lines |
| HVAC | Service call + parts & labor | No | Diagnostic fee shown separately |
| Electrical | Service call + parts & labor | No | Permit/inspection line |
| Landscaping | Recurring flat or per-visit | No | Visit date on each line |
| Catering | Per-head + staffing | Yes — deposit | Guest-count line (final vs. quoted) |
| Handyman | Hourly + materials | No | Hours × rate written out |
| Subcontractor | Progress billing | No — but retention withheld | Retention/retainage line |
| Auto repair | Estimate → parts & labor | No | Authorized-amount reference |
| Photography | Package + usage | Yes — deposit-balance | Deposit applied / balance remaining |
| Cleaning (commercial) | Recurring flat | No | Service period covered |
| House cleaning | Per-visit or recurring | No | Visit date + scope line |
| Trucking (owner-operator) | Per-load, mirrors rate con | No | Rate-confirmation number |
| Snow removal | Seasonal contract or per-push | Yes — seasonal prepay | Trigger-depth / service-date line |
| DJ | Per-event | Yes — deposit-balance | Event date + venue line |
| Musician / band | Per-performance + expenses | Yes — deposit common | Performance vs. expense lines |
| Towing | Per-tow + storage days | No — payment before release | Storage-days line |
| Pest control | Recurring treatment plan | Sometimes — plan prepay | Treatment date + service record |
| Hotel / lodging | Per-night folio + incidentals | Yes — booking deposit | Date-stamped charge lines |
| Attorney | Time in tenths + costs | Yes — retainer | Time-entry descriptions |
| Residential landlord | Monthly rent | Yes — security deposit | Balance remaining (partial payments) |
Money up front is a trade-culture line, not a size line
Whether a trade takes deposits in this corpus has little to do with invoice size and everything to do with what gets consumed before payment. The rows that collect up front — catering, roofing, events and lodging — are the ones where materials, a blocked date or other work may be committed when a client says yes. The rows that do not — plumbing, HVAC and towing — commonly record delivery and collection around the same visit. If you are deciding whether to ask for a deposit, the useful question is not whether you are big enough; it is what your agreement and work plan say you risk if the work is cancelled.
The dispute field is almost never the total
In every row above, the field that gives a payer useful context is not just a money field: the rate-confirmation number on a trucking invoice, the storage-days line on a tow bill, the time-entry description on a legal invoice, or the date stamp on a hotel charge. Totals become harder to review when the lines above them fail to explain themselves. The transferable lesson from this corpus is to write the relevant context line at billing time rather than trying to reconstruct it later.
Three billing archetypes cover 24 trades
Across the table, three recurring shapes are useful comparisons: the [split bill](/templates/contractor-invoice) (labor + materials, 9 rows), the [recurring statement](/templates/cleaning-invoice) (such as cleaning, landscaping and treatment plans), and the [event bill](/templates/catering-invoice) (a deposit followed by a balance). These are editorial labels for the patterns in the table, not industry classifications. If your trade is not listed, use the closest structure as a starting point and adapt the factual fields to the work actually agreed.
About this analysis
This breakdown is compiled from the Invosmith template corpus: the field structures, billing conventions and dispute patterns we research and encode when building each trade's invoice template, cross-checked against how practitioners describe their billing. It is an editorial synthesis by our team — not a survey, not transaction data, and not legal or accounting advice. Counts such as 11 of 24 count rows in the table above and nothing else. If the table changes, the counts change with it. Last updated: August 2026.